A Heart for a Heart
by chicaalterego
Summary: Pricking your finger with a magical cactus can take you to another universe, so it should be no surprise it can also send you time-traveling. How much a pastry filled with heart change fate?
1. Time Traveling

**Disclaimer:** Don't own. Don't care. Writing this for free.

 **AN:** I will be back in a couple of weeks to my main fics. I finally handed in my thesis so I have the mind to spare into proper fics. Sorry for the wait.

Unbetaed chapter. Will work on it later :)

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 _Petition for fic. Evtvolare: Awww! Yaaas! What about.. one when Song Jiaoyue accepted the first snacks with hearts? Link back to us please! 3 3 3_

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Chapter x AU: Time traveling

It was over. The emperor had rewarded Bai Xiangxiu with enough status for her to become Long Heng's official wife. And so, the couple had been rewarded with their happily ever after. It could be seen in their eyes as they married with the proper ceremony and the pomp worthy of a war hero marrying after a great military victory; to top it all, the bride herself had become a legend on her own right, the gossipy house wives and females in general retold the tale of her exploits with increse exagerations to the point it was common belief that she wielded a sickle to cut the knees of the horses along with the special forces.

Not everyone was happy with the union, though. The Female Lead, for once, was screaming like a banshee in a jail built by her husband, her no-longer-deluded cousin, to keep her away from doing anything stupid... again. But there was no one with more grief that day than Song Jiaoyue. The Supporting Male Lead had endured admirably during the whole ceremony with a painful smile while his heart broke into pieces. Still, Long Heng was his still his best friend, and the woman the Supporting Male Lead was losing had her heart so full with Long Heng that Song Jiaoyue would never fit inside ever again.

He tried to be happy for the two of them, but the bitter regret in his heart overwhelmed him and made him lose himself in grief; and so, he went back home early for the party and proceeded to drink himself silly to try to fill the endless hole in his chest, all the while mourning the day he sent Bay Xiangxiu sweets with no heart.

Sorrow and grief often come hand in hand, and Song Jiaoyue started trashing the room in blind violence, bottles, chairs, caligraphy paintings... the scholar's room was becoming increasingly smashed by the second.

"Ahhhh! Master, please don't hurt Shun'er!"

Song Jiaoyue became startled by the childish voice right besides his ear -was he so drunk he wouldn't notice someone creeping on him? He turned really fast, hand still in the air clutching a small pot. There was no one there. Song Jiaoyue started spinning around to search for the sound of the voice to no avail... that is, until he realized that the whinny complain was coming from the ugly spiky plant Bai Xiangxiu had gifted him.

"Ahhh! So dizzy!" the plant, Shun'er complained and Song Jiaoyue let go of the pot, startled, then barely managing to catch the pot on time. _'I must be really drunker than I thouhgt'_ Song Jiaoyue thought as he apologized to the cactus.

The cactus made a little unhappy sound and an awkward silence settled between man and cactus. _'What the hell is going on?'._ The sheer weirdness of the moment was almost enough to sobber up Song Jiaoyue. "Did you just call me 'master'?" he suddenly blurted.

"Papa's Mistress giftet Shun'er to master," the cactus agreed, making his head spin; then a thought popped into his mind 'Did Bai Xiangxiu know the cactus could talk?' Song Jiaoyue couldn't help but wonder. The memory of her iddly chatting with her spiky plant in a cute silly fashion was brought to the forefront of his mind, and he felt she must have known.

Weither it was because of a drunken want of see Bai Xiangxiu before she and her husband went away on their much covetted honeymoon or a simple desire of making sure he was not going crazy, the heir of the Song Family rushed to the Prince Li mansion, all the way to the Hibiscus Courtyard that Bai Xiangxiu had occupied from long before she married Long Heng.

It wasn't surprising to see that Bai Xiangxiu was not on her own... but it was quite a shock to discover Lin Quianzi was trying to stab the woman he loved with a wild frenzy. In a blink, he managed to get between them, just in time to get in the way of the blade. Normally, this would have resulted in Song Jiaoyue saving the day uninjured... unfortunatelly, the man had drunk a tad too much and Lin Quianzi had managed to slap his hand in the process, the spiky plant in Song Jiaoyue's hand flew towards his neck, pricking him.

The last thing he saw as the world became black was Long Heng entering the room and restraining Lin Quianzi with murdeous eyes.

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Song Jiaoyue woke up with a start. His eyes blew wide open and his heart hamered in his chest. He was not in the Prince Li manor, nor was he in his own home. Instead, he stood in a busy marketplace, people coming and going without a rythm. Song Jiaoyue was feeling a bit desorientated, and thus, he walked dazedly, his hand finding his sword by his hip, a sword that he was certain he had not brought with himself in his search for Bai Xiangxiu; another baffling fact was that it was clearly daytime, when a moment ago was night... which meant, he must have lost consciousness for many hours. Still, he didn't understand what was going on.

'I wonder if they have already gone to their honeymoon,' he absently wondered, walking so distractedly that he ended up bumping into a girl with a wide veiled hat. Before Song Jiaoyue could apologize, the girl with the hat pushed him away "Move move, didn't you hear someone calling for help?" the situation of being ignored as such was such an unusual one, but none that he had never been through before. As a matter of fact, the exact same scenario with the same words spoken had happened before to him; moreover... he knew that voice all too well.

"Bai Xiangxiu?" he called. He knew very well that she no longer had the surname Bai, but the words that left his lips came from the bottom of his heart.

Bai Xiangxiu stiffened. "You must be mistaken me with someone else," she claimed, her eyes not meeting his, but how could he mistake some other girl with the object of his affections? He was baffled. But before he gathered his wits to retort, she exclaimed exitedly "make way, make way!". He saw the following scene as though it was happening in slow motion, Bai Xiangxiu moved past him and picked a cloth from the floor, revealing an ugly spiky plant.

Only then there was no doubt in Song Jiaoyue's heart that he had already lived this scene. ' _What is going on?'_

 _To Be Continued_

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 _ **AN:** First chapter of the AU down! Now, I have no idea which is the pairing for this, if BXX ends with SJ, LH, YH or with none at all. All suggestions welcome. I'm 100% winging it. _


	2. Second Second Meetings

**Disclaimer:** Don't own. Don't care. Writting this for free.

 **AN:** OMG! I didn't expect so much activity here! Many thanks to Etvo-sama for putting the link forth! Also, thanks to all DCF fans that showed their support. Any of my readers that like non-cliche novels built on the old transmigration troupe and never read DCF, I suggest you go to Volare Novels. The novel is way fun! And the forum is even better :D

Anyway, since we all need a dose of DFC after the weekend, I figured I would sit and write. Have fun! Also, I want to remind I'm not decided on the pairing yet... this should be fun... for me, that is. Finally I get to choose which ship doesn't sink! muahaha.

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Chapter 2: Second Second Meetings

Some things in time are fated to happen, even if changes in time delay them a tad. After Bai Xiangxiu had picked the odd spiky plant, She pricked her hand with it and blood started rolling from her tender flesh and staining the brim of her long sleeves. Song Jiaoyue was even more panicked than the first time he saw it happen, even though he knew that the woman he loved was strong enough to endure much more pain and hardship. Still, the thing that truly worried him the most was not the flesh-wound but the grief and helpnessness he saw in her posture. He was sure also, that had he seen her eyes he would have seen her pretty eyes loose their fire.

 _'She's acting so helpless. What happened to her?'_ He couldn't imagine what could weaken her spirit, and the image in his heart of her being a fragile girl came to the front of his mind with such prominence it almost obliverated the memory of her smiling viciously as she spoke of military strategies that would make their enemies bleed.

Before his mind caught up with his actions, he took her hurt hand in his and was inspecting where the spikes had pierced her flesh. She stiffened briefly and her jaw fell. None of them moved, they were as though trapped in a bubble world where only the two existed. Song Jiaoyue's heartbeat beat a wild song in his chest while Bai Xiangxiu realized she had met the Supporting Male Lead and the seed of a plan was planted in her heart.

' _Was it on this encounter when I took a place in her heart?'_ Song Jiaoyue felt warm all over and slowly removed the veiled hat off the concubine's head. This proved to be a mistake, for not a moment latter the bubble they were traped in popped. The color drained out of her face until it gained a ghastly parlour. "Are you alright, Miss Bai?"

Her cute lips trembled as she directed at him such a look of abject horror he almost lunged to hug her into his chest, he wanted nothing more than to shield her from whatever had frightened her. Unknown to him, it was himself that was causing the dread painted on her face, or rather, the possibility of him telling Long Heng that he had met her outside of Prince Li's mansion. _'Didn't I transmigrate before the Male Lead came back to the Capital? So how can the Supporting Male Lead know me then! This wasn't in the novel!'_

"Please Mr. Song. This lowly one begs you please!" She threw herself into the floor, her pretty face banging on the floor with such force a bump instantly formed. She then threw her a pitiable frightened look, she looked as cute and helpless as a bunny at the face of a wolf. "This lowly one begs you, please tell no one you have met me here!"

How could Song Jiaoyue deny anything to her when she begged to him with such eyes? He would even pluck his heart out of his chest and hand it to her if it was her heart's desire. He nodded his agreement and she let out a breath of relief. "Many thanks, Sir Jiaoyue." Then she picked herself up woblingly, politely turning down the offer from him scorting her back home. Helplessly, Song Jiaoyue settled by following her from the shadows as she made her way to a familiar cart of vegetables to hid there, a young peasant taking the handless without a word.

Despite his care to remain hidden, a man of much greater accomplishments in martials arts noticed Song Jiaoyue's presence in the shadows. "What are you doing?" Song Jioayue almost jumped out of his skin when he realized his best friend had caught him chasing around his beloved wife! Then again, if he was in the past as he assumed...

"I met an interesting girl, I wanted to look at her a bit more," Song Jiaoyue could see Long Heng's curiosity get replaced with faint distaste.

"You think too much about women," Long Heng declared blandly. It was hard to reconcile Long Heng's old certainty that he would never trust a woman enough to get close clashed with the image of over-protective and jealous husband his friend would develope latter on. His disdain of women was surreal at this point. Song Jiaoye felt more disorientated than ever.

The two friends exchanged brief pleasantries, but their meeting was cut short by Song Jiaoyue turning down Long Heng's invitation to go for a drink since Song Jiaoyue was feeling "out of sorts".

Latter that night, Song Jiaoyue lied on his bed, trying to make sense of everything that he had gone through since he woke up... in the future, then in the past. It was confusing. So much had changed in a blink that his room not been a wrecked mess didn't even registed in his brain. 'Maybe this is all a dream?' he couldn't help but wonder, but if so, how could it felt so real.

He tried to sleep, but he had too much on his mind to get any rest. And so, he decided to go out for a night walk. In the sky a full moon shone, painting silver the roofs of the buildings of the capital. Outside, only the footsteps of his home's guards and the odd security enforcer could be heard outside.

"Have I really returned to the past?" Song Jiaoyue had never heard of such phenomenom taking place, even his rich library had no mention of it in any of its books. He looked to the sky, stars tinkled merrily and the wind was considerably warmer than he felt it ought to be. Maybe he was going crazy? There was no such thing as time traveling or talking plants.

Suddenly, Song Jiaoyue's eyes widened. What happened to the spiky plant that he had gotten from Bai Xiangxiu? 'It probably doesn't exist yet,' he realized, remembering that the plant had been taken from a bigger spiky plant, one that, if he guessed right, was the one Bai Xiangxiu had picked from the road near the pier a couple hours ago.

 _'I need to talk to her!'_ He had so many things to ask her.

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Early on the next morning, Song Jiaoyue visited the Prince Li mansion. Long Heng seemed to be in an unusually bad mood, his eyes looked colder than usual and his mouth had turned into a fine slit.

"Did something unpleasant happen last night?" Song Jiaoyue asked with concern. Long Heng then proceeded to tell him about how last night a servant dared try to poison him with afrodisiac insense. Song Jiaoyue couldn't help but pity his friend, he did all he could to keep women away but they keep on trying to force themselves on his bed. A bed his friend only ever shared with Bai Xiangxiu.

A flare of pain hit Song jiaoyue's heart. "Are you alright?" Long Heng asked in concern. He had known Song Jiaoyue for so long, so how could he miss that his friend had been acting odd since last night?

"I'm alright," Song Jiaoyue declared. Long Heng wanted to pry, but their conversation came to a still when a female voice shrieked as she almost fell flat on her face "Ai ya...". Song Jiaoyue reacted right away at the voice of his beloved. In the blink of an eye, he was catching her. The maid who had been by her side ready to catch her mistress blinked in perplexity.

"Whoever that invented this long skirt was clearly trying to ruin the lives of females. His corpse deserves to ve whipped a hunded times. A hundred times!" Bai Xiangxiu declared passionated. The face of the maid turned death white while Song Jiaoyue's lip twitched up. There was probably only one woman in the world capable of outering such an outrageously violent statement.

The silence that fell right after bai Xinagxiu's almost-fall was deafening, and she looked up slowly, realizing belatedly that it wasn't her maid that had caught her from her near fall. Her eyes grew a bit wide and her face flushed as red as a pomegranate. Her innocent-looking face and flushed skin contrasted horribly, making anyone who saw her unable to believe she had just said she wanted to whipp a corpse.

 _'Oh, shit! The Supporting Male lead heard me! How am I supposed to make him fall for me now?'_ The supporting male lead liked talented women, alright? She needed to be pure and kind and behave like the Female Lead he had fallen for in the fist place! But how about now? How could he fall for a violent women who talked about whipping corpses? This was a total disaster!

Bai Xiangxiu's face turned even more grim when she noticed the Male Lead close by as well. She was doomed. There was no doubt in her heart that she had just sealed her fate as a cannon fodder.

 _To Be Continued._

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 **AN:** Yay! A wonderful point to end a chapter! I will try to write and release the next one soon :D


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